March 2021 – Page 2 – Telegrams From Heaven

Welcome to Telegrams From Heaven. The Woman at the Well offers an appreciation for the wisdom of Mother Teresa in her Telegram From Heaven. We hope you enjoy it. Thanks for dropping by. The Thirsty, I've always been a fan of Mother Teresa. She is a wise woman. She always understood that Jesus is the living water. I have a very special memory of when Jesus told me that in person. His promises were true and they still are true. I hope that you hold that thought close to your heart. I wish you well. Woman at the Well Woman at the Well's Telegram Is the Woman at the Well in Heaven? There are no coincidences with Jesus. Everything He said and did had a purpose. His encounter with the Samaritan Woman at the Well was no different. It was planned by God. It wasn’t a chance meeting at a popular place in the heat of the day. So what happened to the Woman at the Well as a result of her encounter with Jesus? Did she believe He was the Messiah? But the big question is most important. Is the Woman at the Well in heaven? The simple act of fetching a jug of water allowed the Woman at the Well to meet Jesus face-to-face and accept His offer of the living water of grace to wash away her sins and the promise of eternal life and an eternal home in heaven. Her story is important enough to be shared in the Gospel of John. In order to better understand what happened to the Samaritan woman at the well, read her brief story below in John 4:1-42. Jesus Talks With a Samaritan Woman 1 Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John— 2 although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3 So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee. 4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. 7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.[a]) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” 11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?” 13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” 16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” 17 “I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.” 19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” 21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” 25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” 26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.” The Disciples Rejoin Jesus 27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?” 28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him. 31 Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” 33 Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?” 34 “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35 Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36 Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. 37 Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. 38 I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.” Many Samaritans Believe 39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41 And because of his words many more became believers. 42 They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.” Imagine running errands, some of your daily tasks, and encountering a stranger who knows many private things about you. In the modern world, we might conclude the person is a stalker, or someone who studied your Facebook profile or searched your name on the internet, or a government official. Who knows. But back in Jesus’ time, none of that could have happened. Jesus surprised the woman at the well with his intimate knowledge of her marital background (five husbands) and current living situation (with a man not her husband). It must have been very disconcerting. But there was something about Jesus that did not scare her. She wasn’t afraid. At first she called Him a prophet. He soon convinced her He was the Messiah. Jesus sent her home to bring back the townspeople. She told them of her conversation with Jesus and His knowledge of her past relationships. They followed her back to the well to see for themselves. After a time they invited him to stay, which He did for two days. By the time He left the Samaritan town, the townspeople know His true nature. And verse 42 explains their new belief in Jesus. “They said to the woman, ‘We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.’” The Woman at the Well believed in Jesus as the Messiah. As she explained in verse 25, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” By the end of her personal visit with Jesus, her simple faith resulted in eternal life, and a home in heaven. Purpose of Telegrams From Heaven The word “heaven” inspires limitless definitions among the religious and non-religious. A few examples include “the home of God,” “a setting of ultimate perfection in the clouds,” or “a place where the resurrection bodies and departed souls of believers spend eternity.” Most often the word conjures up images of ornate, opulent buildings and streets paved with gold. Of beauty, of paradise, of a heavenly kingdom. Most Christians believe it is a real place, separate from Earth. Others are convinced it is close enough for its inhabitants to reveal themselves miraculously to the living. Through brief, focused and topical messages, Telegrams From Heaven intends to encourage, entertain and inspire our neighbors around the world. We want to provide hope and inspiration. The authors of Telegrams From Heaven are individuals who lived in the ancient or recent past. They are men and women of accomplishment who were known for their faith. They are from around the globe, from every walk of life, and their life stories are inspiring and encouraging. We believe these stories offer powerful messages that might help change your life in some small or meaningful way, even if just to improve your walk with God. Telegrams from Heaven are not intended to provoke or offend, but if you feel distressed in any way by one of our telegrams, we apologize. Thanks for dropping by.